The Jerome-Botez Gambit

Let me be clear from the start: twitch streamer Women's FIDE Master Alexandra Botez could defeat me in a chess game while skateboarding around the board, juggling flaming torches, and singing songs by Gordon Lightfoot.

She has been a decent sport about the creation of "the Botez Gambit". According to a "Chess Terms" post on Chess.com, 

The Botez Gambit is a chess meme evoked when someone playing chess accidentally blunders their queen. Despite being called a "gambit," the loss of the queen comes with no compensation and is not intentional...

The term "Botez Gambit" was created by viewers of the BotezLive channel. They came up with the meme after WFM Alexandra Botez, the channel's founder, repeatedly blundered her queen across multiple streams...

With the sisters' colossal success and viewership, the meme spilled over to other Twitch channels. Prominently featured in all major amateur online tournaments like PogChamps, the meme has taken off and become part of chess streamers' vernacular...

Even grandmasters are not immune to an occasional Botez Gambit. Below you can see a video of a time-troubled GM Alexander Zubov blundering his queen during a Titled Tuesday event. 

Grandmaster Simon Williams recently offered a Botez Gambit to Alexandra, herself. Check out this video. 

It should come as no surprise that someone (in the AnarchyChess subReddit, of course) has identified the "Jerome-Botez Gambit": 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qf3+.

Ouch.

And, yes, The Database has an example of the Jerome-Botez. A win by White.

I have not played the Jerome-Botez Gambit, but it is pretty easy to find a few examples of a few Botez Gambits within my Jeromes - say 1, 2, & 3. SMH.

Jerome Gambit: Return of the Jerome-Botez Gambit

We have addressed the Jerome-Botez Gambit before.

First, the Botez Gambit

According to a "Chess Terms" post on Chess.com, 

The Botez Gambit is a chess meme evoked when someone playing chess accidentally blunders their queen. Despite being called a "gambit," the loss of the queen comes with no compensation and is not intentional...

The term "Botez Gambit" was created by viewers of the BotezLive channel. They came up with the meme after WFM Alexandra Botez, the channel's founder, repeatedly blundered her queen across multiple streams...

With the sisters' colossal success and viewership, the meme spilled over to other Twitch channels. Prominently featured in all major amateur online tournaments like PogChamps, the meme has taken off and become part of chess streamers' vernacular...

Even grandmasters are not immune to an occasional Botez Gambit.

Now, the Jerome-Botez Gambit 

It should come as no surprise that someone (in the AnarchyChess subReddit, of course) has identified the "Jerome-Botez Gambit": 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxf7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qf3+.

At the time of the post, I reported that The Database had one example of the Jerome-Botez Gambit.

Currently, The Database has 26 games with the JBG, with White scoring 17% - which is oddly quite impressive, if you think about it, winning after blundering your Queen on move 6.

Supporting this is the online lichess.org, which has 434 JBG games, with White scoring 15%.

Of course, before the Queen offer The Database shows that White scores 57% in games; while lichess.org shows White scoring 51%.

So, you see, it is possible to make the Jerome Gambit even more hazardout for White, but let's not, okay?

Stockfish 15 vs Magnus Carlsen?

Readers of this blog are familiar with Yury V. Bukayev. Recall his most recent post, "JG: The New in Its Opening Theory, in Its Psychology (Part 14)".

Recently, Yury sent me a link to a fascinating video featuring an animated impression of Stockfish. (See "Stockfish 15 introduces himself"). 

The video, "Stockfish 15.1 (4k Elo) Sacrificed his Bishop Against Magnus Carlsen | Magnus chess | Online Chess" starts with Stockfish asking "Chess friends do you ever sacrifice your bishop for no reason?"

There follows a game - unfortunately not a Jerome Gambit - with the following information 

    Game: Bishop Sacrifice For no Reason

    White: Stockfish 15.1

    Black: Magnus Carlsen

    White Elo: "4023"

    Black Elo: "2864"

    Time: 15/3

    Opening Name: B07 Pirc Defense, Botez Gamebit Bishop                Sacrifice

    Date: 26.12.2022

This header is funny.

(By the way, some have suggested that the Jerome Gambit, itself, features piece sacrifices "For no Reasons".)

I am not the first person to speculate that the "Magnus Carlsen" in the game might have been a chess bot, not the real live chess champion.

The game began 1.e4 d6 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Bxf7+ which is what caught Yury's eye.

If "Gamebit" is a mis-spelling of "Gambit", then the reference to the Botez Gambit is understandable. Recall the blog post here from earlier this year, "The Jerome-Botez Gambit".

The game?

1.e4 d6 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.Bxf7+ Kxf7 4.d4 c5 5.Nc3 cxd4 6.Qxd4 Nc6 7.Qd3 Ne5 8.Qe2 Qb6 9.a4 Qb4 10.a5 Bg4 11.f3 Bd7 12.f4 Nc4 13.a6 b6 14.Qd3 Bc6 15.Nf3 Nxe4 16.Nd4 Nxb2 17.Bxb2 Qxb2 18.Nxe4 Qxa1+ 19.Kf2 Qa4 20.Nc3 Qb4 21.Nxc6 Qxf4+ 22.Ke1 Qc1+ 23.Nd1 Qg5 24.Rf1+ Ke8 25.Qe4 g6 26.h4 Qc5 27.Ne3 Kd7 28.Nd4 Qa5+ 29.Kf2 Rc8 30.Nd5 Qxa6 31.Qe6+ Kd8 32.Kg1 Rc5 33.Rxf8+ Rxf8 34.Qxe7+ Kc8 35.Qxf8+ Kb7 36.Qe7+ Ka8 37.Nc7+ Rxc7 38.Qxc7 Qb7 39.Qd8+ Qb8 40.Qd7 Qb7 41.Qd8+ Qb8 42.Qd7 Qb7 43.Qe8+ Qb8 44.Qf7 Qc8 45.Qd5+ Qb7 46.Qg8+ Qb8 47.Qd5+ Qb7 48.Nc6 Qc7 49.Nb4+ Qb7 50.Qg8+ Qb8 51.Qd5+ Qb7 52.Qxd6 a5 53.Nd5 Ka7 54.c4 Qb8 55.Qf6 a4 56.Qe7+ Qb7 57.Qd6 h6 58.Kf2 Ka8 59.Ke3 Ka7 60.Kd2 g5 61.h5 g4 62.Ke3 Qb8 63.Qd7+ Qb7 64.Qxa4+ Kb8 65.Qb5 g3 66.Nxb6 Ka7 67.Nd5 Qxb5 68.cxb5 Kb7 69.Kf4 Kc8 70.Kf5 Kd7 71.Kg6 Kd6 72.b6 Kxd5 73.b7 Ke5 74.b8=Q+ Ke6 75.Kxh6 Kf5 76.Kg7 Ke4 77.h6 Ke3 78.Qxg3+ Kd4 79.h7 Kc4 80.h8=Q Kb5 81.Kg6 Kb4 82.Qgc3+ Kb5 83.Qb8+ Ka6 84.Qa1#

Apparently Magnus Carlsen wanted to "avenge" that loss as a few days later there came the video "Stockfish 15.1 (4K Elo) Sacrificed His Bishop in the Opening | Stockfish vs Magnus | Fide magnus" but with no vindication, alas (Stockfish as White)

1.d4 Nf6 2.Bh6 gxh6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Qd2 Bg7 5.O-O-O Ne4 6.Nxe4 dxe4 7.e3 O-O 8.Ne2 c5 9.f3 cxd4 10.exd4 exf3 11.Ng3 Nc6 12.c3 Bg4 13.h3 fxg2 14.Qxg2 Qa5 15.hxg4 Qxa2 16.Nf5 Rfc8 17.Qe4 Bf6 18.Bd3 Kf8 19.Bb1 Qa4 20.Rxh6 Na5 21.Kd2 Nc4+ 22.Ke2 Rc7 23.Rxh7 e6 24.g5 Nxb2 25.Rdh1 Qa6+ 26.Bd3 exf5 27. gxf6 Qxf6 28.Rh8+ Qxh8 29.Rxh8+ Kg7 30.Qe5+ f6 31.Qxc7+ Kxh8 32.Bxf5 Re8+ 33.Kf1 Kg8 34.Bg6 Re1+ 35.Kxe1 Nd3+ 36.Kd2 Ne5 37.dxe5 fxe5 38.Qf7+ Kh8 39.Qh7# 

Hmmm... The "world champion" being thrashed, twice.

Hard to explain.

Although HAL 9000 (from "2001:A Space Odyssey") might have commented that "It can only be attributable to human error."

More Jerome-Botez Gambits

 

I am afraid that I was much too optimistic when I posted about "The Jerome-Botez Gambit" - 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.Bxf7+ Kxg7 5.Nxe5+ Nxe5 6.Qf3+ - yesterday, reporting that there was only one example of this unfortunate sideline in The Database.

A quick trip to the lichess.org website corrected that, as I found 20 game examples (and one more by transposition).

I am not sure which surprises me more, that Black score "only" 83%, or that Black chose to capture the Queen with 6...Nxf3+ only 67% of the time. Perhaps the fact that all but 3 games were played at bullet or ultra-bullet speed could account for instantaneous but erronious responses to 6.Qf3+.

Sometimes the world is a bit too complicated for me.

Jerome Gambit CHECKMATE!!!

CHECKMATE!!!

I just discovered a YouTube video, "Jerome Gambit CHECKMATE!!!" that appears to be a 30 0 game Jerome Gambit game between Alexandrea Botez and Andrea Botez.

The game features a delightful march of White's e-pawn, supported by the Queen, ending with a Queen sacrifice and a promotion to a Queen leading to checkmate.

The moves appear to be the same as in Ftmean - Saleem, 10 0 blitz, Chess.com, 2021 (1-0, 16), but watching the video is a lot more fun.

Check it out.